Foreign Digest: Netherlands, Iran and Syria

Netherlands: The rightwing Dutch Prime Minister resigned earlier this month and the far-right anti-migrant party left the governing coalition because its demands for severely limiting the grant of asylum to refugees were not met by the other coalition parties. The main center-right and two other parties had formed a coalition government for the Netherlands after the far-right party won the most votes and seats in the Dutch parliamentary elections, but fell short of the required majority to govern alone, as I had posted. There will have to be new elections and likely another protracted negotiation to form a coalition government. The Netherlands is an ally of the United States as a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Iran: The International Atomic Energy Agency censured the Islamic Republic of Iran last week for violating its nuclear non-proliferation obligations. It is the first time in decades that the UN watchdog composed of a number of member States has censured Iran. Iran claims its nuclear program is only for peaceful means, but the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism has enriched uranium beyond the threshold needed for energy production and could assemble nuclear weapons within months. Iran’s threat to increase enrichment in response prompted strikes on its nuclear program by Israel, which the Islamic Republic has repeatedly threatened. As with previous Iranian attacks on Isreal this year, the U.S. and some of its allies are intercepting Iranian missiles and drones targeting the Jewish States. Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy foments Islamist revolution throughout the Islamic world, backing guerillas and terrorists, particularly in Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Yemen, and Iraq. Syria: The United States struck Islamic State targets in Syria last week. The IS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, the Sunni Islamist terrorist organization responsible for the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks on America that killed a record 3,000 people. The U.S. has maintained since the Syrian Civil War left a power vacuum a small force in northeast Syria against the IS and al-Qaeda and also sometimes strikes Iranian-backed militia when attacked by them. The American forces are being kept there since the fall of Syria’s Assad regime under the leadership of the new Islamist-led government that is cooperating with the U.S. against the IS.